SolidWorks sheet metal basics tutorial

Hello again. In this tutorial I will show you the basics of sheet metal in SolidWorks. I decided to create an U bracket for this tutorial . First you go to the Insert/Sheet Metal/Base Flange... Then you have to pick a plane in which you want to draw the sketch. I picked up the front plane. Now you draw a sketch of the bracket and you get something like this:

You have your sketch and now you want to add the third dimension to get a 3D model. You go to Features tab and you use the Extrude Boss/Base command. The width of my bracket is 20 mm. When you have your 3D model you will want to create some fillets on the ends of the bracket. To do this you go to Features tab and you use the Fillet command. Also you will want to create two holes on the ends od the bracket so you could mount your bracket to something. Now you will have something like this:

Now you want to make this model a sheet metal part. To do this you will go to Insert/Sheet Metal/Convert To Sheet Metal... For the fixed entity you will select a face that will be fixed and for the bend edges you will select all the other faces. Now you have your sheet metal part. On the left side of the screen in the design tree you unsuppress the last feature (Flatt-Pattern) and you get your bracket flattened like this:

You can download this U bracket on the link below:

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ce9f32e/n/Obujmica.SLDPRT

In my next tutorial I will show you the basics of assembly in SolidWorks. I will use my U bracket and a few other parts.

Sponsored by toolshop Alatnica D-plast from Osijek. You can look up them on the folowing link:
www.d-plast.hr